On Wednesday evening Estonia’s ERR revealed that Eesti Laul 2022Â is set for a revamp. And on Thursday morning the details became clearer as the broadcaster published the rules along with a start date for the new round of quarter-finals — 20 November.
Eesti Laul 2022 — Dates
As previously announced, the popular national selection is expanding to include quarter-finals involving 40 competing songs. The dates for these additional shows, as well as the traditional two semi-finals and final have now been published. All four preliminary heats will take place before Christmas, while the latter stages will take place as normal in the spring. Unlike recent years, there will not be a one weekend gap between the semi-finals and final.
- Quarter-final 1 — Saturday 20 November
- Quarter-final 2 — Saturday 27 November
- Quarter-final 3 — Saturday 4 December
- Quarter-final 4 — Saturday 11 December
- Semi-final 1 — Thursday 3 February
- Semi-final 2 — Saturday 5 February
- Grand final — Saturday 12 February
The 40 quarter-finalists will be announced no later than 27 October.
Eesti Laul 2022: The rules
In addition to the competition dates, ERR has also released the rules. They include the following:
- Songs can be submitted from 2 September. The submission window will close on 20 October at 12:00 local time.
- 20 songs that will pass to quarter-finals will be in other languages and 20 songs will be in Estonian
- The competition is open to authors and groups of authors who are citizens of Estonia, foreigners resident in Estonia or non-residents. However, the amount of non-resident writers on a song cannot outnumber Estonian citizens or residents.
- Performers may also be citizens, residents or non-residents of Estonia.
- Performers and authors can submit up to five songs.
- Until October 17, the fee for participating âŹ50 for a song in Estonian and âŹ100 for a song in a foreign language or multilingual.
- In the final phase of the competition, the participation fees will double to âŹ100 and âŹ200, respectively.
- The competition song submitted to the competition must be the final version of the song.
- 10 songs will compete in each quarter-final.
- 20 of the initial 40 songs will qualify for the semi-finals.
- 10 will progress to the final.
- Organisers hope to have a live audience for the semi-finals and final.
The complete list of rules and regulations can be found here.
What do you think? Is 40 acts too much? Or is bigger better? Who would you like to see competing in Eesti Laul 2022? Tell us your thoughts below!
Read more Estonia Eurovision 2022 news here
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This is a great idea and besides, it gives us a jump on the Eurovision National Final season – how can you complain about that? More songs – more entertainment and showmanship. From what I’ve seen so far, from the first Quarter Final, the songs are of high quality! Stig Rästa, the return of Jaagup Tuisk (in Estonian!) and a new-to-us Rock offering via Boamadu, also Maian and Evelin Samuel – all different genres, something for everyone. My favorite is Boamadu, “Mitte Kauaks” (chills), Jaagup Tuisk is phenomenal (in Estonian), Stig is up-to-date and spicy (chills) and Maian and Evelin… Read more »
I am looking forward to seeing this selection. Not only because it will be easier to do so two months ahead of everyone else (although it is much appreciated), but also because last two ESC winners came from countries which had more great songs under their belt in the last decade. Both Italy’s and Netherlands’ win was a long overdue. After songs like La forza, Goodbye To Yesterday and more, it could be the same for Estonia. Purely general standard-wise, France, Ukraine, Norway, and Estonia are certainly on a preliminary watchlist for me.
So the court files are gonna happen in late November through early December, and the main three shows wonât happen until February. Iâd be ticked about the long space of time, but to be fair they probably will be other national finals filling up the time so that by the time Estonia is their national final, weâve had our fill for other things.
I’m hoping for the best and I appreciate ERR’s enthusiasm, but 40 songs seem too much and, as much as I don’t like when everybody waits until March to release their entry, it’ll be hard to keep a song fresh from November (in case the future winner comes from one of the first semifinals) to May.
On the other hand, our fun will begin earlier this year.
I agree that it could be an overload. đ “itâll be hard to keep a song fresh from November” IMHO, only “meh” songs age. I mean, Volare is fresh after over 50 years. If the song becomes boring till’ May, it was probably never meant to do well. đ I don’t think that 40 would’ve been an issue if we voted online for the final 20 (like Latvia 2018), but 7 shows could be challenging for Estonia, considering the low quality of some of their previous semis. I mean, their 2020 semis actively ruined some performances with their poor equipment.… Read more »
A good song won’t age, that’s for sure. But an average Eurovision entry will. And sometimes it happens very quickly… Let’s hope they have a few great songs in the mix. And that the supefinal won’t make it merely a popularity/sex appeal contest. They could take the opportunity to get rid of that final round of voting. I want want these 40 songs to be VERY diverse. Eesti Laul 2018 pops up in my mind. That final was one of the most diverse and entertaining we had recently. Too bad the next couple of years there were quite uneventful. 2021… Read more »
Interestingly, for me there is about an equal amount of songs that age badly as those who turn out to be growers. Still, I cannot argue that certain trends pass quickly. đ I absolutely agree about the superfinals. Three best songs should end-up there. For me, singer’s charisma can sometimes amp-up a song, but it can only give a push to an already good song, not make-up for a bad one. And sex appeal is only vital in cases like Fuego or Sugar, when the song is *about that*. And even then, it’s only a cherry on the cake rather… Read more »
Sex appeal is part of the game and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, Maneskin and Eleni are good examples of it. Some good sex tension on the stage is also welcome, like Estonia showed with Stig and Elina. But in Eesti Laul it seems that a particular demographic is having a lot of weight in the final decision. Melfest had the same problem for a while, but things took a turn in the last few years.
This… Sounds very strange, specially considering they plan to bring 40 songs to compete even if they don’t know the songs’ quality. No national final has shortlisted as many songs as EF this year, the only one I remember is Latvia 2018, with around 63.
Plus that, adding more show to the format doesn’t change nothing if you don’t have good songs (i.e. Israel 2021, which shortened the selection they planned).
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It’s not surprising that a country who skipped their national final last year would want to do something bigger this year. It’s been two years since they last did it and you have to rev up the hype to get back the audience. I wonder if some of the other ones that skipped a year will be expanding their national final format.
??? what do you mean, they had Eesti Laul last year….
My bad. They had the same guy with practically the same song as 2020. Sort of easy to forget the 2021 EL, couldn’t name any of the songs entered.
A lot of these songs were much better than the winning one (as noted by the juries too), but I do believe it was fair for Uku to go to Eurovision. He seems like a really nice guy, and his voice is indeed very good.
You couldn’t remember JĂźri’s fantastic entry?
wow! Getting eurovision songs before jesc even starts!? cool
Just know that the song will be revealed in December but will spend the next 3-4 months being revamped into oblivion. Eesti Laul wonât count, itâs the revamped finished song that comes in spring that will . Theyâre basically looking for a performer and something that will sound like their eventual entry.
Of course and I agree. But we could say the same about Israel and other countries that have national selections and then revamp the peopleâs choice.
I agree too but without the multiple revamps, Israel might not have qualified. At least it was the same song (hello Belarus (? x 2) and Malta.
LOL, and people think Melodifestivalen has to many shows:)
i’ve heard the QFs won’t have live performances. in this case, the format lacks cuz many “fancy” videoclips can outshine the actual good songs and qualify instead.
Indeed the QFs will be based on the music videos đ But also they could take online vote into account, but don’t know if they will.
on the one hand, that’s so many songs and there will probably be many many filler songs. on the other hand, we get to hear possible eurovision songs in October, which is v exciting
I think they will be available the week before each quarter final just like Melfest and MGP.
According to ERR deadlines you can not reveal your song until it is 12th of December, the day after last quarterfinal airs, therefore only possible option is that they reveal the songs before the shows, either some time before them or during the livestream. So yes, your theory is most likely correct